New Rice laboratory to study brain's response to trauma

Updated 10:40 pm, Sunday, April 21, 2013

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The Texas Medical Center will build its first core laboratory devoted to studying neuroplasticity after a $1.5 million grant from the T.L.L. Temple Foundation. The new 6000-square-foot building will specialize in developing an understanding of cognitive functions of the brain following stroke, epilepsy, traumatic injury and other neurological disorders. less

The Texas Medical Center will build its first core laboratory devoted to studying neuroplasticity after a $1.5 million grant from the T.L.L. Temple Foundation. The new 6000-square-foot building will specialize ... more

Photo: Rice University

New Rice laboratory to study brain's response to trauma

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A new $1.5 million Rice University laboratory will be one of the few in the country to examine how the brain responds over time to traumatic injuries or neurological disorders.

The Texas Medical Center will build its first laboratory devoted to studying neuroplasticity with a grant from the T.L.L. Temple Foundation, a nonprofit that gives grants in health, medicine and others areas across East Texas. The new 6,000-square-foot building will specialize in developing an understanding of cognitive functions of the brain following strokes, epilepsy, traumatic injuries and other neurological disorders.

The laboratory will be located in Rice's BioScience Research Collaborative, a 10-story building at University and Main. The research team, led by psychology professor Randi Martin, will include not only Rice faculty and researchers but also experts from other Medical Center institutions.

Martin said that most neuroscience laboratories focus on how the brain behaves at a particular point in time, rather than changes in the brain over time. This research will have "important implications for prognosis and treatment" of the injuries and disorders, she said.

"The difference between the new laboratory and other cognitive neuroscience laboratories around the country is the emphasis on plasticity," Martin said. "We want to know what happens to the brain during recovery and what happens between the acute stage and six months or a year down the road."

Stroke affects more than 795,000 people a year in the United States, possibly impairing language, memory and perception. The Houston region is situated in the "stroke belt," a region in the southeastern U.S. where incidence of strokes is higher than the national average, possibly because of diet and exercise choices, according to some research.